Julie's use of the Net
Julie is a mature student studying part-time for an art degree. Her children
regularly refer to the Net for information on films, music and homework
projects When asked how she uses the Internet she says, "Oh, I don't
understand the technology of it at all. I can't use it and I haven't got
time for aimless wandering so I get someone else to log on for me."
She says she has never heard the terms 'bookmark', 'search engine' or 'shortcut'.
However, further into the conversation she mentions that she belongs to
an art community online called Post Modern Culture and regularly receives
its bulletin and other material online. She researches art projects on the
Web and downloads images and text where relevant. She checks out galleries
across the UK for exhibitions, dates and times and she finds background
information about authors for a women's book group she belongs to. Indeed
Julie has actually published details of her own art work and exhibitions
on a Web site at http://www.hvaf.org.uk.
If Julie can achieve all this without knowing how to log on, what on earth
will she be able to achieve after an hour of good, focused training?
Jane Mitra, Life with Technology
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